Real 'farm to fork' dining in O.C.

Nov. 8, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Bees swarm beekeeper Zach Fontes as he holds a hive's frame while working on the Fairmont Newport Beach Hotel's rooftop. At right are the hives and in the distance the Newport Beach skyline. The hotel has an estimated 300,000 bees on the rooftop that produce honey used in the production of the hotel restaurant's savory "honey infused" dishes. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Michael Jordan shows off the first two Macaslan beans picked from his current crop at his organic farm in Orange Park Acres. Jordan is the vice president of food and beverage at The Ranch Restaurant in Anaheim. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Whole Baby Mache with Spring Chicken and Black Strap Molasses Marinade, in a bed of baby mache, has roots on indicating ultimate freshness. The stunning on-site garden overlooks Il Garage in Stanton. The Italian bistro shares the same property as chef-owner David Slay's midcentury modern steak and chop house, Park Avenue. CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Rich Mead unloads fresh vegetables and fruit from his catering van Wednesday. The owner-chef of Sage in Newport Beach drives to the Santa Monica Farmers Market every Wednesday morning to buy the best regionally grown produce from farmers. Depending on the season, Mead can buy up to $2,000 worth of produce each week. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Some of Fairmont Newport Beach's signature sweet and savory dishes are infused with honey gathered from the hotel's rooftop honey bees or made from goat cheese transported from a goat farm in Ontario. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Fairmont Newport Beach produces private label jars of the honey collected from about 300,000 bees on their rooftop. Some 300 pounds of the sweet stuff is collected annually. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Bees swarm beekeeper Zach Fontes as he pulls a frame from a hive while working on the Fairmont Newport Beach Hotel's rooftop. The hotel has an estimated 300,000 bees on the rooftop that produce honey used in the hotel restaurant's savory "honey infused" dishes. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Some of Fairmont Newport Beach's dishes feature goat cheese. In this presentation, Herbs de Provence goat cheese, above, and Rooftop Honey and apricot goat cheese are displayed. The hotel has adopted seven goats from a goat farm in Ontario. These goats provide all the goat cheese the hotel uses. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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The Ranch Restaurant's Michael Jordan stands in a corn field that produces sweet heirloom varieties of the vegetable. The corn is harvested in the early morning and served to his guests that very day. The two-acre Orange Park Acres organic farm provides organic fruits and vegetables that feed his kitchen. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Michael Jordan says his Ranch Restaurant's Black Mamba chili peppers and black tomatoes, in background, are among some of the unusual culinary offerings that his restaurant can use in their cooking. The restaurant owns a two-acre organic farm in Orange Park Acres. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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In the summer, The Ranch Restaurant in Anaheim served squash blossoms from its Orange Park Acres farm. NANCY LUNA, THE REGISTER

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Michael Jordan holds, from left, the rare Red Scorpion, Jamaican Fish, Trinidad Perfume and Yellow Hot chili peppers. They are among some of the hottest chili peppers available. They are grown on a farm that feeds the kitchen at The Ranch Restaurant. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Michael Jordan, vice president of food and beverage at The Ranch Restaurant in Anaheim, comes out two to four times a week to examine and select some of his restaurant's organic fruit and vegetables. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Black tomatoes grown on an organic farm for The Ranch Restaurant are known for their mild taste. They have a balance of acid and sugar, says Michael Jordan, restaurant vice president of food and beverage. Its striking appearance permits the eatery to offer visually stunning salads. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The roast butternut squash and pomegranate salad is a hit with guests at Sage in Newport Beach. The ingredients in it: arugula, Soledad Farm's goat cheese and toasted walnuts come from the Santa Monica Farmers Market. Only the apple cider vinaigrette doesn't. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Chef Rich Mead holds his pear and ginger panna cotta dessert. The pear, ginger and strawberries are from the Santa Monica Farmers Market. About 80 to 90 percent of the produce Mead buys there reaches the Sage menu. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Acclaimed chef-owner David Slay clips fresh vegetables from the garden for use at his Stanton restaurants, Park Avenue and Il Garage. CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Chef David Slay of Park Avenue and Il Garage in Stanton uses freshly clipped herbs and vegetables from the on-site garden or from their farm, Sage Ranch. CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Bees swarm beekeeper Zach Fontes as he holds a hive's frame while working on the Fairmont Newport Beach Hotel's rooftop. At right are the hives and in the distance the Newport Beach skyline. The hotel has an estimated 300,000 bees on the rooftop that produce honey used in the production of the hotel restaurant's savory "honey infused" dishes. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Farm to Table Honorary Mentions

The restaurants at The Resort at Pelican Hill take advantage of locally grown fruits and vegetables from the Irvine Ranch farm. Future Foods Farms is a 25-acre organic aquaponic farm in Brea that offers a tour and "farm fresh" multi-course tasting most Saturday nights. Lucca Café in Irvine sources from Orange County Produce, which distributes locally grown fruits and vegetables. Canyon in Anaheim Hills, owned by Sage's Rich Mead, has an onsite herb and produce garden. Studio at Montage Laguna Beach has its own on-site garden. Seabirds Truckgets a majority of its food for its vegan dishes form Tanaka Farms (Irvine), Orange County Produce (Irvine), Bautista Creek (Hemet) and local farmers markets.

Talk to us: Write in and let us know about your favorite farm-to-fork restaurant.

Michael Jordan's passion for locally sourced meals has influenced the menus at some of Orange County's top dining venues – Pinot Provence, Napa Rose and The Ranch Restaurant & Saloon.

When the master sommelier worked at Napa Rose in Downtown Disney, Jordan persuadedDisney's top brass to grow chard, colorful artichokes, corn and tomatoes in the most unlikely of locations: A Bug's Land at Disney California Adventure and Tomorrowland at Disneyland.

Jordan was among a few local epicureans who followed the slow food crusades of Alice Waters. These "locavores" believed in pure ingredients long before "farm to fork" became an industry buzz phrase.

"We never used those terms. We were just homegrown," he said.

Today, Jordan's philosophy is playing out at aptly named The Ranch in Anaheim, where he works as vice president of food and beverage. Depending on the season, about 20 to 70 percent of restaurant's menu incorporates produce from a 2-acre farm eight miles away in Orange Park Acres.

"It is for real. It's legit. We are really bringing the farm to the table," he said.

Other Orange County restaurants are embracing farm to fork practices.

For them, it's not a gimmick. It's a way of life.

FAIRMONT NEWPORT BEACH: THE UNCONVENTIONAL

When Chad Blunston became executive chef at Fairmont Newport Beach in 2010, he wanted to launch a rooftop garden. That idea changed swiftly when 30,000 bees swarmed the hedges outside the lobby in spring 2011.

"I believe in fate," said Blunston, who was toying with the idea of raising honeybees.

He hired Backyard Bees to relocate them into hives on the hotel's north-facing roof. Backyard co-founder Janet Andrews was skeptical. The MacArthur Boulevard hotel is in an industrial area near John Wayne Airport.

"I didn't think there would be enough foraging for them," she said.

But the bees, which can travel up to five miles from their home base, made do with their unconventional surroundings. A month later, they were making honey.

The 30,000 bees have since grown to 300,000 housed in six rooftop hives. Over a two-month period, they make about 35 pounds of honey. Blunston -- who grew up among the red-soiled farms of Prince Edward Island, Canada -- uses the honey in salad dressings, pastry dishes and specialty cocktails served at the hotel's Bambu restaurant. The hotel also keeps a collection of small private label jars for VIP guests.

"I call it liquid gold. It's one of those natural wonderful wonders," he said.

Honey isn't the only farm-to-table experiment playing out at Fairmont.

Last year, Blunston adopted seven goats from Drake Family Farms in Ontario. Each Sunday, the always hands-on chef drives to the farm and fetches up to 80 pounds of goat cheese. Traditional, honey apricot, jalapeno and lemon-pepper goat cheeses are used on everything from tasting menus to salads.

Next up for Blunston? Beer.

"I want to grow my own hops. Why not? I'll try anything."

PARK AVE.: A GARDEN OASIS

At Park Ave., hostesses and servers are often found guiding diners through the restaurant's 5,000 square feet of gardens, where the aromas of cilantro, basil, parsley, sage and chives overwhelm the senses.

"It's so relaxing. I could be having the worst day out here, and everything mellows when you come out here," Chef David Slay said of his picturesque produce oasis.

Slay opened Park Ave. in 2005 – a "chops and steak" restaurant on an old dairy farm on Beach Boulevard in Stanton. A fan of seasonally driven cooking, he knew the site would be fertile ground for a culinary garden.

"This is where the cows roamed," Slay said.

Throughout the year, the garden boasts about 25 items – from summer tomatoes to winter squash to spring peas. Year-round, Slay grows arugula, chard, baby greens, fennel, root vegetables and herbs for Park Ave. Il Garage, a bistro Slay opened last year next to the gardens, recently served butternut squash ravioli and eggplant with pappardelle.

"Whatever's in the garden, we work into the menu," he said.

SAGE: A PIONEER

While he was a chef in Santa Monica in the early 1990s, Rich's Mead's cooking philosophy changed with a knock on the door. A local farmer dropped off leafy greens for sampling at his restaurant's back entrance.

"You taste the lettuces and you have this epiphany," Mead said. "That's when you realize what local is."

Since then, Mead has incorporated produce found at the Santa Monica Farmers Market into his menus. But when he opened Sage in Newport Beach several years later, his farm-to-table philosophy was a hard sell.

On a sweltering hot summer day, Michael Jordan isn't feeling the heat. As he guides a group of writers through The Ranch Restaurant's two-acre farm, the master sommelier is on a natural high. He gushes with pride as he shows off rare black cherry tomatoes, figs, squash blossoms, painted serpent cucumbers and hot house peppers.

Much of the farm's 500 plants have grown from seeds collected and sown by Jordan, a culinary gardener since the 1970s.

"I like to grow the really groovy stuff," he said.

But even traditional produce can be inspiring.

The farm's Valencia oranges make for "the sweetest most delicious orange sorbet you'll taste in your life. I'm going ape for it," Jordan said.

When the farm's 70 tomato plants produced a bumper crop over the summer, Executive Chef Michael Rossi made tomato jam from the excess fruit. For a brief time, it was served with the restaurant's signature popover appetizers.

Despite The Ranch's name, Jordan doesn't like to be pushy about its farm-to-table practices.

"Then it is like you're doing it for attention, rather than doing it because it is what you believe in."

Talk to us: Write in and let us know about your favorite farm-to-fork restaurant.

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